Staff Reporter : A gunman has shot dead nine people before taking his own life at a commuter train yard in San Jose, California. Several people were also injured in the incident. The incident took place at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard in San Jose around 6:45 a.m local time on Wednesday (May 26).
The shooter was identified as Samuel Cassidy, an employee of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), law enforcement sources said. He shot and killed himself at the scene, officials said.
At least eight people were killed, not including the shooter, and one person was critically wounded, sheriff’s Deputy Russell Davis said.
The early morning attack came at a particularly busy time at the transit hub as overnight workers overlap with, and pass of their duties to, colleagues checking in for early-morning shifts.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said her deputies and San Jose police officers arrived quickly after the initial 911 calls.
“I know for sure that when the suspect knew that law enforcement was there, he took his own life,” Smith said.
“The deputy sheriffs … the officers from San Jose PD ran into the building when shots were being fired and I know that it saved many lives.”
Samuel Cassidy was identified as the shooter who opened fire on co-workers at a Northern California rail yard.
Citing an “active shooter,” deputies told the public at 7:12 a.m. PT to steer clear of the neighborhood, about 50 miles south of downtown San Francisco.
“This is a horrific day for our city and it is a tragic day for the VTA family, and our heart pains for the families and the co-workers because we know so many are feeling deeply this loss of their loved ones and their friends,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.
Even hours after the shooter died, a bomb squad was clearing the area in case he left explosives behind.
“We received information that there are explosive devices that are located inside the building,” Davis told reporters at the scene. “ We’re trying to clear out every room, every crevice of that building.”
The dead suspect is believed to be the only shooter involved, according to officials. “Public safety is assured at this point,” Davis said.
At about the same time gunfire erupted at the VTA yard, San Jose firefighters rushed to a home about 10 miles away that was engulfed by flames, officials said.
That home, near 1100 Angmar Ct., is the suspect’s, law enforcement sources said. Investigators believe there was ammunition inside the home and firefighters smelled an accelerant when they arrived, sources said.
“We’re trying to figure out, exactly, if there’s a connection” between the fire and shooting, Davis said.
The Younger Avenue address is a light rail yard of the VTA, which provides bus, rail and various shuttle services to the booming Bay Area suburb and technology hub.
Davis called the shooting scene a VTA “control center” which is a “hub that stores multiple VTA trains and a maintenance yard as well.”
The shooting happened “on the VTA light rail yard but it did not happen in the operations control center,” VTA Board Chairman Glenn Hendricks said.
Hendricks added he was proud of transit workers who stayed on the job and kept moving commuters even in the face of Wednesday’s mass shooting.
“A horrible tragedy has happened today,” Hendricks said. “I could not be more proud of the VTA organization. As I drove here, I saw VTA buses out on the road.”
The suspect was described as a “substation maintainer,” law enforcement sources said. And state public employee records showed a VTA employee named Samuel Cassidy, with that same position, who made $114,426.17 in 2019 wages, the last data available.
The shooting scene is at the center of regional law enforcement operations, as the rail yard is within a half-mile of the San Jose Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney headquarters.
The VTA yard is also about 35 miles north of Gilroy, where three people were killed in a shooting at a garlic festival less than two years ago.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom lamented the “rinse and repeat” nature of American gun violence.
“There’s a numbness … there’s a sameness to this,” he told reporters at the scene in San Jose on Wednesday.
“Anywhere, USA. It feels like this happens over and over and over again. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.”
The shooting comes amid a yearlong rise in nationwide gun violence and record firearm sales.
President Joe Biden urged Congress to take immediate action on the issue of gun control, saying that the current violence is “enough” following the shooting Wednesday.
“There are at least eight families who will never be whole again,” Biden said in the statement. “There are children, parents, and spouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters — good, honest, hardworking people — who are mourning their own.”
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the federal government is keeping in close contact with law enforcement in San Jose.
“We will continue to stay in close contact with them and offer any assistance as needed,” she said. “We still don’t know all of the details … but what’s clear, as the president has said, is that we are suffering from an epidemic of gun violence in this country, both in mass shootings and in the lives that are being taken in daily gun violence that doesn’t make national headlines.”
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